Part 9 of 14 - The Essential Spirit -

The Believer’s Dilemma

By Adam believing (as eating) the Serpent’s words, every person born since then possesses the Sin-spirit in their body “members” (Rom 7:5, 23, 8:3). All men are born into this world with a presumed mindset of self-godhood, prompted by this Sin-spirit. That mindset is of an illusory self; it is the result of men being “conceived in sin” according to the “original lie.” Adam and Eve believed the Serpent’s lie and ate of the forbidden “tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” expecting that it would make them “wise” (Gen 3:6), so as to be independent of God. This original lie offered the possibility that Adam and Eve might be “as gods (Gen 3:5).” That independent mindset abides in every non-believer, and even in most believers. Paul says, we‘re born blinded, by “the god of this world,” the Devil. The Sin-spirit is the “spirit of error (delusion)” (1John 4:6). The Devil is the deceiver and liar. Yet, at the same time, the believer also possesses Christ’s “spirit of life,” as the “spirit of truth,” within his spirit…and therein is the dilemma for the unlearned, and/or untrusting, Christian.

It’s vital that believers know who their true self is. The believer’s true self is who he is by Christ righteous, essential, “Spirit of life” indwelling their spirit, as a new creation in Christ (2Cor 5:17). Christ’s life is the believer’s life. Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…

Paul describes his realization of a dual nature within him in Romans 7:5-23 – “What I want to do I don’t, and what I don’t want to do I do,” calling himself a “wretched man.” Paul ultimately comes to the truth of his self in Rom. 8. Some say Romans 7 speaks of Paul before his conversion; but by Romans 8 we see that Paul must have been a believer during his Romans 7 dilemma concerning Sin resident within his body members. My proof is seen here in Rom. 8:2 “the law (normal operation of) Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law (operation of) of sin and death.” (Rom 8:2) Here Paul speaks of what he came to know through the trial of his dilemma, and by the abundant revelations that he received from the ascended Christ (2Cor 12:1, 7). Paul says it is by the spontaneous, normal, operation of the indwelling “spirit of life in Christ” that we are continually made free from “the law (normal operation of) sin and death.” Only believers possess the “spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Thus, Paul must have been a believer with the indwelling “spirit of life in Christ” in his spirit at the same time he struggled with “the operation of sin and death” in his flesh.

Paul says “Sin,” as “evil” (Rom 7:21), is “in the flesh” (Rom 8:3), “in your mortal body” (Rom 6:12),

Romans 8:3 what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned (sentenced) sin in the flesh, Romans 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey (as a soul) it in the lusts (desires) thereof (of the body).

By the above Scriptures, we can see that Satan’s evil Sin-spirit and nature is located specifically in the flesh members of man’s body. Since we are yet to die physically, then “sin and death” (8:2b) is not yet destroyed; rather, it’s we, as to our “old man,” who are “crucified” with Christ (Gal 2:20). Being dead, Sin then cannot reign over us – we are dead to Sin. Rom. 6:2 …How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Let’s look at these verses below, from two versions of the Bible to help us see something important.

1. Rom 6:6-7 (KJV)…our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed (kartargeo, made of no effect), that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7For he that is dead is freed from sin.
2. Rom 6:6-7 (Weymouth)… our old self was nailed to the cross with Him, in order that our sinful nature might be deprived of its power, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin;

The KJV uses the word “destroyed” but this is incorrect. The “body of Sin,” with its Sin-nature is not “destroyed,” as written in the KJV. Rather, as seen clearly in the Weymouth NT , the “sinful nature,” is only “deprived of its power,” because we, as to “our old man,” are “nailed to the cross.” The Greek word here is “kartargeo,” meaning “to be made of no effect.” It is our death that makes Sin “of no effect.” Our death with Christ deprives Sin of having us as its subject; we’re no longer under Sin’s dominion. How? We were crucified with Christ; His death is our old man’s death. Rom 6:3 … so many of us as were baptized (put) into Jesus Christ were baptized (put) into his death? Result: “he (a believer) that is dead is freed from sin.” (Rom. 6:7).